Israel ordered the city of Gaza on Tuesday to fully evacuate, home to around one million Palestinians, ahead of the controversial military takeover.
“From the old town to the east Taffa to the west sea, to all the residents of Gaza City and all its neighbourhood. The IDF is determined to defeat Hamas and will work with great force in the Gaza City area, as they did throughout the strip.”
“For your safety, we will immediately evacuate towards the human belt of Almawasi via the Rashid Axis,” he added.
A leaflet also dropped north, carrying a message containing a map that directs residents of northern Gaza to move westward to the coast before heading south.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Palestinians to evacuate Gaza on Monday, saying, “This is just the beginning of an intensified ground operation.” The warning comes hours after the military stepped up its airstrikes in urban areas.
Israel is targeting high towers in dense cities on a near day as it proceeds with plans to occupy it against domestic and international opposition.
Volker Turk, the UN Human Rights Director, warns that Israel’s escalation in Gaza city will lead to greater forced evacuation, murder, more unbearable suffering, meaningless destruction and cruelty.
Also, hundreds of thousands of Israelis have taken them to the streets to protest the city’s planned takeover, fearing that they will put the remaining hostages in danger and endanger the lives of soldiers.
Israeli forces have expanded their operations in recent weeks to seize Gaza city and say it is key to defeating Hamas. It currently claims to manage around 40% of the largest cities in the enclave.
As of Wednesday, less than 10% of the city’s roughly 1 million residents (less than 10% of the approximately 1 million residents) had been evacuated, with Israeli officials saying they account for less than 10% of the total population.
Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that Israel plans to halt Gaza’s humanitarian air force and reduce the entry of aid trucks to the north of the strip.
Last month, Cogat, an Israeli agency that manages the flow of aid to Gaza, announced that it would provide tents to the Palestinians in Gaza before moving them south of the enclave.
However, only 3,000 tents have entered the entire territory so far, an Israeli official said Tuesday, adding that the goal is to deliver 100,000 tents within three weeks. “We want to flood Gaza with tents,” the official said.
Meanwhile, the US and Israel are planning to expand the number of aid distribution sites run by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) between the ages of four and 16, Israeli officials told CNN last month. None of these new sites are found in Gaza City, officials said. There are no indications yet that all new sites are established.
When plans for the acquisition were announced, some Gaza residents told CNN they would rather die in their homes than evacuate again.
Um Samed, the 59-year-old mother of 59, told Reuters: “We must decide whether to stay in Gaza city and die, or follow the (Israel) orders and leave Gaza to die in the South.
